Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/820

 806 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

depends upon their relative mass. Though mass perhaps is not as important an influence as culture, it is without doubt a deter- mining factor in the reaction. 1 Other things being the same, the more equal the two elements in mass, the more reciprocal their action ; hence the effect of assimilating forces varies inversely with the compactness of the passive element. It is greatest when the passive element consists of isolated individuals. All through ancient history both the attack and response in the assimilating process were mass-action. But in our own day and in our own land the process of assimilation of immigrants involves the action of a group upon an individual. Our vast body of immi- grants comes, not as a horde, but as individuals, who scattering through American society are rapidly assimilated. The power of the assimilating element is overwhelming. There is little or no resistance on the part of the immigrant, and the process is accomplished almost without his knowledge. Here interaction is reduced to the minimum, yet it does exist. It is to be noticed especially in the effect of the German element upon our music and amusements. But that the resistance to assimilating forces is greater the more it is made en masse is shown by the persist- ence of alien customs in the Mennonite villages of Minnesota and the German settlements in Wisconsin.

The interaction between the elements depends, in the third place, upon the relative intensity of race-consciousness. The more intense its race-consciousness, the greater the resistance of the passive element, and possibly the greater its counter-influ- ence ; but this consciousness may be so intense as to prevent all assimilation. Greek civilization was not lost through the Roman conquest of Greece, because of the intense race-consciousness among the Greeks, which not only prevented surrender of their own peculiar culture, but was instrumental in causing its adop- tion by the victors. From the time of contact the Romans "played the Greek" in most matters of social life. In the east- ern part of the empire Greek was the universal tongue. The

'"Whenever two nations equally advanced in civilization are brought into close contact, the language of the most numerous will prevail." (SAYCE, Principles of Com parativc Philology, p. 177.)